


Francesca and Paolo

by Quadrophenia



Category: Heroes (TV)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, HRG is a control-freak, Nathan Petrelli is a control-freak, References to Dante, Roman Catholicism, Uncle/Niece Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 08:48:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1851865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quadrophenia/pseuds/Quadrophenia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hatian's response to Peter and Claire.  Drabbleish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Francesca and Paolo

**Author's Note:**

> An old story from the glory days of "Heroes" taken from my old ff.net account. I never bothered watching "Heroes" past the first half of Season 2 because the utter absurdity of their new timeline drove me mad. So this is kind of AU from the end of Season 1, I guess? Like if things had just stayed awesome instead of devolving into the ridiculous, badly-accented mayhem of an ill-advised trip to "Northern Ireland"? Adam was okay, though. Anyway, that means that I have only just found out that the mysterious Hatian's given name was revealed to be Rene once I did a preliminary google-search when re-posting this. I've left it more-or-less as it was when it was first published oh so many years ago, just cleaned up some punctuation and clarified something that was nagging. Twenty-year old me really liked semi-colons; twenty-eight year-old me prefers dashes (most of the time.)

 

He knows that his talent is imperfect, knows that he can only block half the truth: the memories are fixable - they can be removed - but the feelings that create them are steadfast and impenetrable, even for someone with a power as great as his.

He's never told anyone ( _how could he? he talks to no one_ ) but he relives each memory he extracts, sees it playing in front of him on 8 mm film.

The first time he corners her, she's washing the dishes, a faint smile touching her lips and the glow of love fulfilled in her green eyes. He comes up behind her, touches her forehead, watches her freeze up in surprise, then terror, and then the blank canvass of the ignorant. He feels temporarily guilty as the glow leaves those green eyes, replaced once again with a guarded shadow, hiding the immoral feelings that he can do nothing to change.

The picture that plays in his head is hardly child-friendly, but the kisses and caresses that she and her lover give to each other are examples of true compassion. Momentarily, he is mesmerized, watching the memories he has stolen from her play out in front of him as the lover's glow slowly fades from her eyes. He can see tenderness and love in each touch, in each whispered moan, in the frenzied movements they share. She is beautiful like this, unleashed, raw ( _unguarded, spent and ultimately happy_ ) and he finds himself simultaneously aroused and shamed to be a witness to this very private moment of a secret love.

He feels like a voyeur. He is a voyeur ( _he is the Narrator_ ) while she is Francesca and the boy with the dark hair and pale skin is her Paolo.

Labeling them in terms from his Catholic upbringing helps him to categorize, helps him to remember that he is cleansing them – however imperfectly – of an immortal sin.

He has to take her lover by surprise as well, although he is forced to employ more physical restraint. Paolo has never trusted him. Knowing what is coming, he fights and tries to use his own considerable power to prevent the inevitable corruption of that one perfect memory. But, in the end, he is over-powered, and the Narrator ( _that is what he now calls himself in his head_ ) is able to begin the long process of extraction. Again, the memory plays across his consciousness, from a different viewpoint, but with the same feelings of complete and absolute love. When the lovers kiss, frenzied and passionate, he feels the thrill; when she smiles and cries, his heart clenches along with his; her hands caress his skin. He finds himself loving her through her lover.

Again, he is simultaneously shamed and aroused.

When he reports his success to his superiors, they nod grimly and pretend that this will be the final time they have to deal with an errant daughter and brother, nephew and niece. But he has borne witness to their memories, has seen what they have seen and loved as they've loved, and he knows that they are deluding themselves.

Francesca and Paolo, punished for all eternity for the duel sins of adultery and lust. He uses this to rationalize his crime, to try and forget the whispered words of affection, the frenzied cries of passion and release, but most of all, he tries to rationalize away his own guilt.

He has used his imperfect power to erase their memories over 20 times now, watching them age and mature, turn to others and always return to each other. Sometimes they are frenzied, sometimes they are slow, always they are tender, and always they are in love.

He can take their memories but, in the end, the underlying feelings remain the same. These he can never alter.

 


End file.
